Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ib Paper 2 12A i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For the spherical circle, use a rotation to put the center at the north pole. Points at spherical distance have polar angle and admit the parametrizationIts speed is , so the arc length isFor small , the Taylor series gives . Thus its circumference is smaller than the Euclidean circumference for the same intrinsic radius. Their ratio is and tends to one. The leading agreement expresses local Euclidean behavior; the cubic deficit reflects the positive Gaussian curvature of the unit sphere.